An interesting suggestions emerging from the woodwork is that Rubens Barrichello could be struggling with the sport’s ever-sophisticated steering wheels.
The sport’s longest-serving driver kicked off his eighteenth consecutive season with a – what we’ll kindly describe as – a clumsy race weekend, that featured several trips into the gravel traps in practice and qualifying, and a drive-through penalty for a clearly at-fault collision with Nico Rosberg during the race.
Rubens – a man known for being armed with a lengthy list of excuses – later blamed Nico Rosberg for causing the accident at Turn 3 by braking too early, when most insiders felt that Rubens would never have made the corner had he not used the German’s Mercedes GP as a ‘brake’!
And with several drivers complaining that the addition of more steering wheel buttons to deploy KERS and DRS is making their driving workload too high, a close source has suggested that this could be the cause of the Brazilian’s poor race at Albert Park.
“Barrichello even had trouble with the multi-function steering wheel he had at Ferrari, and compared to a modern wheel that’s like the Kreisliga (Germany’s ninth-tier football league) versus the Champions League,” the source is quoted as saying in Speed Week.
[Image via Formula1]
Richard Bailey
Latest posts by Richard Bailey (see all)
- 2020 F1 Season Review (Blu Ray) - 27 February, 2021
- WTCR: Guerrieri outwits Muller at the Nordschleife - 26 September, 2020
- WTCR: Girolami breaks Nordschleife lap record to claim pole - 25 September, 2020
- WTCR: Hyundai withdraws from Germany round - 24 September, 2020
- WTCR: Ehrlacher leads Lynk & Co podium sweep at Zolder - 13 September, 2020